


The Prince is Giving a Ball

by JustAPassingGlance



Series: 12 Days of Christmas 2013 [6]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arranged Marriage, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-05
Updated: 2014-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:17:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2832902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAPassingGlance/pseuds/JustAPassingGlance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Prince is giving a ball! A royal engagement ball, to which everyone in the kingdom is invited. And at midnight his fiancée will be announced.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Prince is Giving a Ball

Slivers of sunlight danced across the end of the bed, let in by the gap in the curtains. Blaine stretched, curling and uncurling his body languidly before burying his face back into the crook of Sebastian’s neck.

Sebastian made a half-hearted attempt at swatting at his backside. “Tickles,” he admonished as he wriggled away.

With a huff of laughter, Blaine shot out his hand to anchor around Sebastian’s side and pulled himself closer. Decisively, he rolled half on top of him and starting playfully nipping at his clavicle.

“I will kill you,” Sebastian mumbled as he attempted, one-handed, to push Blaine off of him. “Or hire someone to do it,” he corrected. “Your father might stop liking me if I added procericide to my list of abilities.”

“I asked you not to mention my father while we are naked,” grumbled Blaine as he rolled back onto his side of the bed and gathered the sheets closer to him, retreating back inside himself like he always did whenever either of them brought the outside world in. This time it was Sebastian’s turn to chase him across the expanse of mattress. Pulling him in close, Sebastian peppered his chest with teasing kisses.

Blaine was just beginning to allow himself to enjoy Sebastian’s attentions when a tentative knock sounded at the door and, after a second, it was hesitantly pushed open. Sam poked his head through, eyes screwed tightly shut.

“The council is meeting in an hour, my lord,” he said hurriedly. “Would you like your breakfast now?”

“Yes, please.” Blaine had pulled away again and even Sebastian knew better than to try and get him back.

“And would you like… extra this morning, my lord?”

“Thank you, no.” Blaine was refusing to even look in Sebastian’s direction. They were allowed to be them only as long as the door remained closed. As soon as it was open Blaine put so much distance between them they might as well be on opposite sides of the castle.

“Very good, sir. I will be back in a quarter of an hour.” From the shifting of the shadows they could see him dip into a quick bow before pulling the door closed.

“Stupid council,” Sebastian grumbled as he searched around the room for his clothing.

“If you want to sleep later, you should call the meetings for later,” Blaine smiled tightly as he slipped back into his nightclothes.

“Brilliant minded as always, my liege.” Sebastian grinned cheekily. Quickly glancing over at the door, he paused to listen for the sound of returning footsteps. When he didn’t hear any he slunk over to his prince, crowded him against the wardrobe and stole a last kiss. With a final wink and an unnecessarily sultry, “See you later,” he was mock bowing his way out of the room.

* * *

Westerville had been at war for almost as long as Blaine had been alive. No one really remembered what the original dispute had been over. Land most claimed. Other’s held it was an insult to the queen that sparked the fighting. Still others were convinced it was about the caves and caves of gold whispered to be tucked away in Carmel’s hills.

After twenty years the people were tired. Tired of being without their husbands and sons. Tired of having to grow extra crops to feed both themselves and the soldiers. Tired of being at war.

“Captain Clarington has faith the war will be won by next year,” Sebastian announced to the council, reading off a scroll that had been delivered to him at breakfast.

“With all due respect, viceroy,  we have been hearing that for years.” Wes spoke up, not sounding like he meant much respect at all. The court held mixed opinions on Sebastian. He was exceptionally young for his position, even during wartime. There were rumors that his rise to power had been surrounded by suspicious circumstances but few of them held any weight.

“True,” Sebastian conceded. “But I am sure you will find I am not the only one at this table who believes it.”

Immediately all eyes swiveled to the court sorceress, Brittany who was paying more attention to a ball of twine than she was to them.

“Brittany,” Blaine gently prompted. “Is what he says true?”

“Totally true,” she replied not even looking up.   

“The people will not believe us,” Trent said nervously. “As respectable as our sources are, Wes is right. For too long we have been telling them the war will be over within the year.”

A general murmur of agreement went up around the table.

“So we don’t tell them anything?”

“No. There is nothing we can say,” Blaine contemplated.

“But,” Sebastian cleared his throat over the muttering that had broken out around the table. “We can distract them.” He rifled through the pile of missives and notes in front of him.

“How? It is somewhat difficult to distract people from the fact that they are on the brink of starvation.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. Trent had always been one for the dramatics. In no way was Sebastian blind to the struggles of the kingdom, but they were hardly on the brink of anything other than maybe revolting from annoyance at how long this stupid and mostly pointless war was taking.  

“A royal engagement,” he announced, looking around the table and holding eye contact with everyone except Blaine. “That occurs at a royal ball that everyone, no matter how high- or low-born they are, is invited to. Everything for the ball will be purchased from the people. Putting money into their hands and giving them a sense of pride in their own work and, most importantly, increasing their loyalty to the kingdom.”

The room was entirely silent as everyone mulled over this idea.

“Who though? An arrangement like this cannot just be done overnight.”

“The Lady Fabray. From Lima.”

Thad let out a low whistle. “Her father controls the best army in the Six Kingdoms.”

“That may have been taken into consideration,” Sebastian admitted slyly.  

“Blaine?” Wes looked to the head of the table. “My lord?” He quickly corrected himself. The two had been close friends their entire life but it was unusual from him to address his prince so casually in public.

“What?” Blaine tore his eyes away from where they were boring into Sebastian. “It seems as though you,” his eyes were back on Sebastian, his voice stained and distant sounding, even to him. “and my father,” he nodded to the scroll in Sebastian’s hand, stamped with the royal seal, “have this all figured out. So, if no one has anything else?” He looked around the table as one by one the council members shook their heads. He made a vague dismissing motion with his hand.

Hours after everyone else had left he was still sitting there.

* * *

“You can’t just marry me off to someone.” It had been five days since the council meeting and the announcement had already been made to all the villages. It was the first time that Blaine and Sebastian had been alone in the same room in those five days. “You can’t just…” he yelled. “My life isn’t some game.”

“I can’t.” For once in his life Sebastian almost looked contrite. “But your father can.”

“And where did he get the idea from?” spat Blaine. Blaine had been something of a disappointment to his father when it became clear that he was not destined for a great military career. The king was much more interested in winning battles than he was in his youngest son’s life.

“It was meant for Cooper,” Sebastian defended, straightening up and holding his arms stiffly at his sides, hands balled into fists. “Before he…”

“Ran off,” Blaine finished for him.

It had been a huge scandal. Cooper, the brilliant, bright, shining son who had lead his troops to victory in countless battles suddenly deciding to run off with a group of travelling players. Their father kept threatening to disinherit him if he did not return. Meanwhile, Blaine, who had always been in the background of his family, was shoved to the forefront as he began training to take over for his father should anything happen to him.

“So this all,” Blaine gestured out the window, “should have been ended by now.”

Sebastian tilted his head in what could be seen as acknowledgement, neither outright confirming nor denying. “We were lucky Lord Fabray continued with the negotiations. We’re giving a considerable dowry on the day of the nuptials and a tribute for an as-of-yet-unspecified number of years after.”

Blaine laughed through tears he hadn’t quite realized were building up behind his eyes. “It’s good to know my worth, at least.”

The twitch in Sebastian’s jaw indicated that he wanted to argue but knew there was no point. Whatever Sebastian might think of him, or the kingdom as a whole might think, the importance of it paled in comparison to what the king thought.

“You should have told me,” Blaine said at last. What he had really wanted to say for nearly a week.  Part of him had always known that one day his bride would be chosen for him, since it was unlikely he would find one for himself. But Sebastian had not only known about the engagement, he had helped negotiate the entire thing for months and hadn’t ever mentioned it.

“I only received confirmation that morning after…” his lips quirked up into a shadow of a smirk. “At breakfast,” he amended. “We needed to make the announcement immediately, so they couldn’t change their mind.”

“You could have told me before. While you were plotting away with my father. Unless he told you not to.” He wondered if that was it, if his father thought him so pathetic that he too would run if he was told ahead of time.

“He said nothing one way or the other.”

A knock at the door interrupted them. “Excuse me, my lord,” Sam bowed, “but there are farmers here to see you. From the eastern border. Something is killing their sheep.”

“Thank you, Sam.” Blaine nodded. “I’ll be right there.”

* * *

For the next fortnight things remained tense between the two of them. They barely spoke to each other at council meetings and when they weren’t attending to official business, they were almost always on opposite sides of the castle.

It was with just over a week to go until the engagement ball that Blaine found himself standing outside of Sebastian’s rooms, panting from the exertion of running all the way there.

“I need to see Sebastian,” Blaine demanded. “It’s urgent.”

In flustered confusion the guard hesitated.  For years he had operated under the strict instructions that only people with Sebastian’s permission were allowed to enter Sebastian's chambers, but that had never extended to the prince before.

“You are dismissed for the evening,” Blaine snapped. “My guards will take over.” Without waiting, he slid between the guard and the door and let himself into the room.

“Blaine?” Sebastian asked groggily having been woken up from the raised voices. “What’re you doing here?”

Blaine practically ran to the bed, not even bothering to remove his slippers before throwing himself on it and clasping himself against Sebastian. “I can’t lose you,” he whispered brokenly. “I can’t.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sebastian murmured. Gently he carded his fingers through Blaine’s curls. “I’m not going anywhere.”  

* * *

The room kept alternating between being too large and too small. One moment it felt like the walls were about to cave in on him and next he couldn’t imagine being able to walk the distance across the floor to the door.

“I can’t do this.” He pulled at the high collar of his shirt and readjusted his suit for the eightieth time. “Let’s run away,” he turned wide, hopeful eyes to Sebastian who was leaning against the floor length mirror. “Or postpone. Another week or two.”

“You’re not running away. And we don’t have the gold to do this ball over again.”

They both glanced over to the corner of the room where the clock announced that there was a quarter of an hour until midnight.

At half-past eleven, Blaine had excused himself from the line of women hoping to dance with him to change into his engagement robes. Sebastian had ducked out a few minutes after him. With the king absent it was his duty to preside over the brief ceremony so no one questioned his disappearance accompanied by the half-muttered assurance that he wanted to make sure everything was in order and to change into his own robes which were nearly as elaborate as Blaine’s.

“I don’t love her.”

“No one thinks you do.”

Blaine and Quinn had met twice. Once when they were young children and again a few years before at her older sister’s wedding. As children they had enjoyed a game of hide and seek and more recently made it through a ten minute conversation without feeling too awkward. That they had the ability to like each other he had no doubt, but he would never be able to love her as he should. As she might one day expect him to.

“I love you.”

“I know.”

They had been sleeping together for nearly three years and never tried to hide how they felt for each other. But rarely was it spoken aloud. Because at the end of the day love was only a feeling and feelings didn’t win wars or create alliances. Their love, their relationship was never going to have run a different course. Even if Cooper wasn’t traipsing all over the land putting on shows in taverns and around fires, Blaine was always going to have been married off to someone.

“And you love me too?” Blaine asked, voice small as he bit into his lower lip to keep it from trembling.

“You know I do.”

They fell into each other’s arms, limbs trembling as they clutched at each other. Sebastian brought his head down and Blaine pushed himself up to his tiptoes, their mouths meeting in the middle in a messy, desperate kiss.

“What are you going to do?” Blaine asked as they pulled apart, tears clinging to his eyelashes as he gazed up at Sebastian’s swollen lips.

“I was planning on drinking a lot tonight. I had several bottles set aside for me. In celebration of my ingenious scheming,” he snorted, voice taking on a mocking quality with the last words. “Should do the trick.” His thumb stroked against Blaine’s cheek. Remembering the feel of it, the softness and the contours. They way the skin twitched as he tightened his jaw. How Blaine unconsciously leaned into the touch.

“And tomorrow?” Blaine tried not to think about how tomorrow would be different than today. Different than all the days that had come before because he would no longer be Sebastian’s and Sebastian would no longer be his.

“We begin to plan the wedding.”


End file.
